UAW-Stellantis deal includes $18.9 billion in new investments

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union said Chrysler-parent Stellantis plans to invest $18.9 billion in the U.S. by April 2028, including $1.5 billion for new midsize pickup truck production at an idled factory in Belvidere, Illinois.

The investments are expected to be completed during the term of the 4½-year tentative agreement, which must still be ratified by the roughly 43,000 UAW members covered by the proposed contract at Stellantis.

Details of the tentative agreement were released Thursday night after local UAW leaders approved the pact, which UAW President Shawn Fain called the “most lucrative contract our union has won in decades.”

The tentative labor agreement was reached Saturday after roughly six weeks of targeted strikes by the union against Stellantis, General Motors and Ford Motor. The work stoppages began Sept. 15 after the sides failed to reach deals covering 146,000 UAW members with the automakers by a strike deadline.

“For the first time in a long time, we’ve done the unthinkable: Reopened a plant,” Fain said during an online broadcast Thursday, referring to the Belvidere factory, which was idled in February 2022. “We didn’t do it by begging the company or agreeing to work terrible hours, or take a pay cut, or pursue a race to the bottom. We didn’t do it by giving back. We did it by fighting back.”

Heading into the talks, UAW Vice President Rich Boyer, who led the Stellantis talks, made product commitments a priority and stressed that the Belvidere plant was a make-or-break issue.

The details announced Thursday include $8.1 billion in product commitments secured by union negotiators from Stellantis, the UAW said.